First Congo War

The First Congo War (24 October 1996-16 May 1997) was a spillover conflict of the Rwandan Civil War that occurred when the anti-Zaire Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL) and its Rwandan allies invaded Zaire and deposed Mobutu Sese Seko's dictatorship. The Rwandan government was angered when it discovered that Hutu Interahamwe militants were setting up military bases in Zaire so that they could launch cross-border raids against Rwanda, so the Rwandan government set up the AFDL and sent troops to assist the AFDL in an invasion of Zaire. 57,000 AFDL rebels and 3,500 Rwandan troops, with the support of Uganda, Burundi, and Angola, invaded Zaire, facing 60,000 Zairian troops, as many as 100,000 Interahamwe militiamen, and around 1,000 Angolan UNITA troops. Amnesty International estimated that as many as 200,000 Hutu refugees were massacred by the invading Rwandan army, and the allied armies were able to destroy Mobutu's forces in 1997. On 16 May 1997, Mobutu fled the capital of Kinshasa, and he went into exile in Morocco as AFDL leader Laurent-Desire Kabila took power. Just a year later, Kabila would face a similar uprising, leading to the Second Congo War.